1880 very descriptive UFO sighting

How could this be debunked with such a descriptive report? It took place in May of 1880 when there were no airplanes, helicopters or any flying
machines. This was taken from the book Anatomy of a Phenomenon by Jaques Vallee 1965. Curious to know what skeptics think of this sighting. What
alternatives can you think of that might explain away this sighting?

This kind of reminds me of another wheel that was seen in the sky, only much earlier in time.

Yep. It certainly seems like another credible eyewitness account of an object/'s that could only have been manufactured by an advanced alien
civilization from another solar system, or our own advanced future civilization.

I love these sightings/reports from before there was all kinds of stuff in the air.
Completely different frame of reference, gives a completely different, new, way to envision what they have seen.
Nice.

I completely agree, no comparisons to any known aircraft, no way to say it must have been new stealth technology being tested by skunkworks. the
visual it creates is very precise, i can actually picture this in my minds eye much better thanmany modern reports.

Great topic! Here is one from my area. My dad was born and raised in Hollis (just about 7 miles N of Jessieville) and people see UFOs all the time
still. I will look for a news clipping from the local paper about a different sighting BRB....

One of the strangest close encounters of the "airship era" took place 101 years ago, on May 6, 1897, near Blue Ouachita Mountain, just northwest of
Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Constable John J. Sumpter Jr. and Deputy Sheriff John McLemore of Garland County left Hot Springs on horseback to investigate reports of cattle
rustling. They rode north on what is now Highway 7 to Jessieville. Here is their story in their own words:

"While riding northwest from this city (Hot Springs) on the night of May 6, 1897, we noticed a brilliant light high in the heavens. Suddenly it
disappeared and we said nothing about it, as we were looking for parties (suspects--J.T.) and did not want to make any noise."

It's a shame there's no hand drawn picture to go with the story to give us a better impression of what it looked like. Interesting though how he
relates what he saw to the tech of the time by inferring it was like a wheel with spokes.

Flight was possible back then though in the form of hot air balloons, although the account sounds nothing like what a hot air balloon of the time
would look like. It's also worth noting that electric light bulbs had been invented although we're talking a matter of years.

However I don't know what to say on this as all things point to advanced tech for the time.

This isn't a new phenomenon apparently, especially in the Persian gulf, it's called marine phosphorescent wheels

'Marine phosphorescent wheels' come in many appearances, often together with 'luminous parallel bands' or 'luminous rotating spokes'.
Sometimes one, sometimes multiple wheels, rotating clockwise or counter clockwise, with a diameter between 3 and 200 metres, sometimes virtually
stretching out to the horizon. At times the spectacle appeared to be under water, sometimes it seemed to be above the surface. Also in this context,
'under water rising and at the surface exploding balls of light' and 'submarine light rays' were observed sometimes together with the 'wheels'.
Altogether, a wide-ranging, but very intriguing phenomenon.

They probably have quite a mundane explanation, although still very interesting:

There are other unusual patterns of light that appear at sea such as Auroral Pillars, and phosphorescent seas. Berlitz (1975), mentioned that,
“glowing streaks of ‘white water’ in the Gulf Stream” were witnessed by Columbus (p 16). However, while Berlitz described these as a
“baffling mystery” as Corliss (1982) points out, they are a quite natural phenomenon. The result of bacterial or phytoplankton phosphorescence
on the surface of the water, they can often appear as bars of light or moving wheel-shaped patterns. Fort (1973) mentioned an example of these.
Huge luminous wheel shapes appeared on both sides of the steam ship Patna in 1880. With the spokes of these wheels, some 180 to 275 metres long (200
to 300 yards), they were observed to whirl around, brushing the sides of the ship, and in that position continued alongside the ship for about twenty
minutes

Although I don't have a source at the moment, I believe most researchers consider this to be a hoax. (EDIT:
Source. It is interesting that the craft and the method it steals the
cow is at the limits of what the rancher can imagine; it is not lifted via tractor beam or what-have-you, but a simple wire.

This was part of the late 19th-Century Airship Flap. Jerome Clark, writing many decades later, said of the flap...

comes up against some unhappy realities: newspaper coverage was unreliable; no independent investigators ('airshipologists') spoke directly
with alleged witnesses or attempted to verify or debunk their testimony; and, with a single unsatisfactory exception, no eyewitness was ever
interviewed even in the 1950’s, when some were presumably still living."

Seems like the paid debunkers have an excuse for everything - including the 19th Century sightings. We have solid evidence of UFOs in our past, as
shown on ancient cave paintings, the Egyptians, the work of Klaus Dona and his artifacts from unknown civilisations, there's that strange painting
from around 1600 that looks just like the Sputnik satellite, there are numerous examples in medieval art, the Australian aborigines, Africa.. all over
the world.

Why is it so difficult to accept that we humans have seen these things in our skies over the entire course of our existence?

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